More than 13,000 high street shops closed their doors for good in 2024, new figures show – the equivalent of 37 closures every single day.
The data from the Centre for Retail Research showed the number of UK retail store closures last year increased by more than a quarter on the year before.
13,479 shops were shuttered last year – a 28% rise on 2023.
Most of the closures, about 11,300 of them, were independent stores, which have seen a reduction in financial support as Covid-era grants and schemes are cut back.
But 2,138 of the closures were from larger chains – some, including Ted Baker, Homebase and Carpetright were shut due to insolvency proceedings, while others like Boots and Shoe Zone cut their shop numbers as a money-saving measure.
It’s thought that around 170,000 retail workers lost their jobs last year as a result of business closures and downsizing.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the Centre for Retail Research, said: ‘Whilst the results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025.’
The Centre predicts shop closures will increase again this year, estimating we’ll see about 17,350 stores close their doors for good in 2025.
They reckon an increase in national insurance contributions and the increasing national minimum wage, both announced in the October Budget and coming into effect in April, will force businesses to close as their costs rise.
Big business rate tax changes were also announced in the Budget, with the discount decreasing from 75% to 40% in April.
This could see the average shop’s rates bill increase from £3,589 to £8,613 for 2025/26, commercial real estate firm Altus Group say.
Alex Probyn, Altus’s president of property tax, said it was ‘foolhardy’ to scale back the rate relief, adding: ‘Despite Labour’s manifesto recognition of the undue burden business rates place on our high streets, that burden will be significantly increased.’
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